Christ-is-Lord: When you have a mini van...

You have to initiate it by taking it on a road trip, so that's just what we did. Chris got off staff duty (24 hour duty) at 9 am April 23rd and we took off for San Antonio. The plan was for me to drive and take care of the kids while he slept. Well, if Ben would have cooperated it would have been great. John, who I was actually the most worried about keeping him occupied fell asleep an hour into the drive. Ben, on the other hand, refused to fall asleep, and was about done with the trip by Austin. Poor Chris spent the rest of the drive down there trying to keep Ben consoled. Needless to say the minute we pulled into Dave & Sarah's driveway, he hopped out and went straight to bed. I knew we needed to be out of the house, so that Chris could rest, so I had made plans to meet two of my former coworkers and their boys for lunch and playtime at the park. So we were back on the road again for another 30 minutes to reach Kara's house.
Ben and John nearly had meltdowns by the time we finally got there. When she said she was way out there, I didn't realize that not only was she on the other side of San Antonio, but when you turn on Petranco, you go until you think you are in another town before you reach her house!! Love you Kara! We beat Judy & Kaleb there, and Camren was napping, so John immediately took it on himself to make himself at home. Camren had just celebrated his one year old birthday a month prior, and had a lot of his toys in the living room, so John sat right down and began to play. I tried to put Ben to sleep, but of course, he wouldn't have it. A new place with new things to see and people to entertain.
Camren woke up shortly after Judy and Kaleb arrived, and of course the boys wanted to play instead of eat, even though the adults were starving! I was impressed though. John had never really been around boys his age, and he actually played really well. Kaleb & John are 2 months apart (our first baby, Pepin, was due a week after Kaleb was due, and we got pregnant with John shortly after we lost Pepin so Judy and I were pregnant together much of our last year at work). Camren being nearly a year younger than the other two , wasn't quite sure what to make of the two boys playing with his toys.
After lunch we walked to the park. Ben fell asleep (finally) on the way to the park and woke up on the way back from it (nearly an hour-hooray!) John also couldn't keep his eyes open on the way back from the park. I guess his hour nap in the car didn't cut it! He even fell asleep on the way back to Dave & Sarah's house. Poor kiddo. Here's some pics from the park:

Both Judy & Kara ended up having the same wagons. John rode with Camren. I was impressed, cuz Kara was pulling 60 pounds of boy uphill most of the way.